Normalcy Is A Thing Of The Past
by angie2282
Summary: LostInLost18 Challenge. Set to season five episode "Namaste". Sawyer finds it hard to believe that they returned but knows that any sense of normalcy will be forever changed.


He was seeing it, but Sawyer sure as hell wasn't believing it.

It had to be a dream. Perhaps a drug-induced haze from whatever some of the Dharma hippies had been smoking these days. But these three could not be standing there, their familiar faces boring into his.

So he slowly moved forward, squinting slightly behind his eyeglasses, as if trying to deduce whether the sudden re-appearance of his former fellow castaways was a trick of the light.

And then Jack Shepherd himself was the first to step forward, slightly hesitant but smiling, apparently not quite as surprised. The confident stride. It had to be him.

Sawyer removed his eye glasses and found himself staring intently at Kate. She was there. She was _there. _He took in every detail of the face that he had been deprived of for three years. The hazel eyes that betrayed all emotion, the determined posture, and of course the tiny freckles scattered around her nose. Suddenly, the blurry image of her that time that threatened to erase from his memories was right as rain.

He heard a thump and shifted his gaze to Hugo, who had dropped the guitar case he had been carrying _(since when did he play?)_ and was lumbering towards him.

"You're alive. Dude! I can't believe it!" Hugo cried and true to himself picked Sawyer up into one of his Hugo bear hugs, laughing and squeezing the stuffing out of him.

Sawyer laughed as he was lifted from the very ground, patting his friend's back joyfully. "Easy on the ribs there, Kong." he quipped after being set down.

"Kong," Hugo repeated in a nostalgic tone. "I actually missed that."

Sawyer grinned at him. "Missed you too, Hugo." And truthfully he had. The big lug had made for good company and he was one hell of a ping pong player.

Jack moved forward, offering a handshake. "Sawyer." he acknowledged.

Sawyer gripped his hand firmly. "Doc." He looked as clean-cut as ever, the poster boy for wholesomeness in his suit and tie.

The Doc retreated and Sawyer turned to find himself face-to-face with Kate. She was smiling as they both fell into a warm hug. The small form of intimacy brought back a flood of memories for Sawyer who relished the hug. Images of bear cages and hatches that had been locked away when he had settled into a life of relative normalcy with Juliet at the Barracks were brought back up to the surface. He noticed though, that it didn't feel quite the same as it had all those years ago. "Good to see you, Kate."

"You, too, James." she replied, before breaking the embrace.

He sighed, glancing at the trio in disbelief once more. "You're really here. Son of a bitch actually did it! Locke said he was gonna bring you back, but... where is he?" he asked, noticing the absence of the faithful leader. How the hell he had managed to convince them all to come back, especially Jack, was beyond him.

As soon as both Jack and Kate looked down, he sensed this wasn't going to be good.

"John's dead." Jack spoke up.

Sawyer was taken aback. The epitome of survival himself was dead? How? "Dead? How?"

Jack glanced away. "Doesn't matter. He's gone."

...Locke was dead...

"So what's up with you guys and the old DHARMA jumpsuits?" Hugo broke in.

Sawyer glanced at him before turning to Jin. "You didn't tell 'em?"

"No, I was waiting for you." he answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Tell us what?" Kate interrupted.

Sawyer hesitated. Honestly, he had been hoping to be spared from breaking the news to them. It was a hell of a lot to swallow.

"We're in the DHARMA Initiative." he relented.

Jack looked puzzled. "They came back?" he asked, obviously surprised.

"No. We came back. And so did you. It's 1977."

As soon as he saw their faces, Sawyer knew it would no longer be the same. However glad he was to have them back here on the island, he knew that their return would change everything. Any sense of normalcy would probably be disrupted. For one thing, he would have to go back to his con man ways and find some way to explain their arrival, deceive the other members of the Dharma Initiative.

He found Hugo to be the only one still staring at him, confused. "Uh, what?"

**Author's Note: This one-shot was based on season five episode "Namaste" and was written for LostinLost18's Scene It challenge. It was from Sawyer's perspective as I found him to be the one more 'affected' in the situation/scene. As usual hope I did well and that you guys enjoyed it!**


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